Abdullah Al-Othman explores the human acoustical experience that circulates with the contemporary common sense towards weaponizing music. Through a live performance, which was part of a group exhibition titled, Post Oriental Exhibition, curated by Mo Reda at The Mine in Dubai, UAE [2015], the artist actively experimented with the misuse of music throughout history by listening to 21 songs from past torture reports from Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib; risking mental challenges that can be a product of the performance for such a cause. <br /> <br />While the artist listened to music, illusively secluded by the glass walls, the audience was provoked to use their imagination; to feel, and relate to, the perceptual experience he had undergone. Quite ostensibly, the audience did not have an adequate perception of the experience, due to the manipulation of prison circumstances and practices. The supposedly painful experience was mediated by the artist and his ability to show, or maybe conceal, his first hand reaction to the music.

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Inquiry regarding: Abdullah Al Othman - The Experiment from the No-Touch Torture series

I recorded the visual reactions of the answers during the 3 months dialogues. I focused on each individual, recording the tiny and ambiguous details and reading them again to detect emotions of worry, doubt, fear and indifference. The visual reaction is more truthful. I counted on that reaction more than I counted on the spoken language itself.

Language sometimes may consist of a simple collection of diction. The motive behind this research and dialogues that took 90 days with 28 subjects such as artists, writers, thinkers, actors, students and laborers was the search for belief in Allah. Would their chances and lives change when their faith has greatly changed? This research project led me to many questions, but not to a definite answer.

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